Poetry Sunday: Exit Glacier by Peggy Shumaker

Peggy Shumaker is a poet from Alaska. In her poem, "Exit Glacier," she describes the sound and the sight of a glacier breaking up, something that Alaskans might be familiar with, and something that is happening more often in our warming world. She tells us of:

"...history, the record
of breaking—

"prophecy, the warning
of what's yet to break..."


Exit Glacier

by Peggy Shumaker

When we got close enough
we could hear

rivers inside the ice
heaving splits

the groaning of a ledge
about to

calve. Strewn in the moraine
fresh moose sign—

tawny oblong pellets
breaking up

sharp black shale. In one breath
ice and air—

history, the record
of breaking—

prophecy, the warning
of what's yet to break

out from under
four stories

of bone-crushing turquoise
retreating.

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